This essay focuses on their attitude toward religion. Lady Gaga, or an organization, you may get a simple response, but the underlying reasons are probably
Attitudes are evaluative statements—either favorable or unfavorable—about objects, people, or events. They reflect how we feel about something. When you say “I like my job,” you are expressing your attitude about your work. Attitudes are complex. If you ask people about their attitude toward religion, Lady Gaga, or an organization, you may get a simple response, but the underlying reasons are probably complicate. To fully understand attitudes, we must consider their fundamental properties or components. Typically, researchers assume attitudes have three components: cognition, affect, and behavior.2 The statement “My pay is low” is a cognitive component of an attitude—a description of or belief in the way things are. It sets the stage for the more critical part of an attitude—its affective component.
Affect is the emotional or feeling segment of an attitude reflect in the statement, “I am angry over how little I’m paid.” Affect can lead to behavioral outcomes. The behavioral component of an attitude describes an intention to behave a certain way toward someone or something—as in, “I’m going to look for another job that pays better.” Viewing attitudes as having three components—cognition, affect, and behavior—helps understand their complexity and the potential relationship between attitudes and behavior. For example, imagine you realized that someone treated you unfairly. Aren’t you likely to have feelings about that, occurring virtually instantaneously with the realization? Thus, cognition and affect are intertwine. Exhibit 3-1 illustrates how the three components of an attitude are relate. In this example, an employee didn’t get a promotion he think he deserve.